ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, June 19, 1996 TAG: 9606190028
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
ROANOKE COUNTY taxpayers are not subsidizing the education of nonresident students. Never have.
This central fact ought to be kept in mind when assessing the county School Board's decision to begin charging such students $500 tuition, starting with those newly enrolled in the fall.
For years, the county has accepted students from surrounding communities if - and only if - space and staff are available. The county, which adds no teachers and expands no facilities to accommodate these students, picks up the $2,500 per child that the state pays to whatever district he or she attends. The county's schools come out ahead.
The cities of Roanoke and Salem have similar policies. All have been charging a modest registration fee - until now, it has been $100 in the county. Together, this approach to attendance boundaries has been an enlightened accommodation for residents of the Roanoke Valley who, lacking the advantages of a consolidated government, at least enjoy choice beyond school-district lines.
The option is limited, to be sure. The county is choosy about who it accepts, considering not just whether it has the space and staff to accommodate the individual, but also whether the student has decent academic and disciplinary records. It does not accept children with behavior problems. And yet, even in this limited form, school choice is good for the schools as well as the students, because it adds to public education a subtle awareness of the marketplace.
The board hasn't eliminated the policy - students from surrounding communities still can attend county schools - but it has made the choice more burdensome for parents. This was the stated intention of the board majority that voted for the tuition charge.
The action may be aimed less at the cities of Roanoke and Salem than at the county's other, largely rural neighbors: Bedford and Franklin counties. Some taxpayers, presumably guided by the same ugly fear of victimization that contributed to Roanoke County's recent school-bond defeat, complained because parents of Bedford and Franklin students are taxed at lower real-estate tax rates.
The educational strategy guiding some Roanoke County taxpayers these days seems to be: Nobody's gonna get a better deal than I do, even if it kills me. Why the School Board would adopt such a view, instead of showing leadership and trying to explain its policies to the public, is also hard to explain - though the advent of elected school boards is no doubt a factor.
So in the future, if good students from neighboring localities want to attend Roanoke County schools, they'll have to pay more - even though their attendance is at the district's discretion and adds to its funding. They'll pay more, that is, if they come at all.
And, where more cooperation is needed among the region's districts to coordinate policies and promote public-school choice, an outbreak of isolationism instead has occurred - in a county already at risk of diminished reputation because of its failure to invest adequately in its school facilities.
Board members who say they're worried about large numbers of nonresidents applying to county schools are either ignorant of the facts or woefully eager to engage in political pandering. The facts are that any or all of these applicants can be turned away - and taking those who are accepted works to the county's advantage.
The time to worry is when they quit applying.
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